Your Bad Brain Habit that Could Ruin Everything

"The 99% Complete Syndrome" Could Throw All Your Hard Work Down the Drain

April Meeting Invite

Google Calendar Event

Friday, April 25 · 5 PM PST, 6 PM MST, 7 PM CST,

Google Meet joining info

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/bjo-fpzb-ihv

Resources

🏫Course:

The Insider's Guide to Writing Personal Statements and Applying for Grants & Residencies by

Narratively

2-day workshop
Cost: $235

🎪Event:

The Coney Island Book Fair by

Ilise Carter

Books, Oddities, Coney Island-type weird stuff
New York City
May 10, 2025
Book Fair (12-6p.m.) FREE
Author Panels (1-5p.m.) $20
Variety Show (7 p.m.) $25
Show & Panel Pass $40

🪧Author promotion/publicity:

Wyoming freelancer

Jackie Dorothy

is looking for features for Cowboy State Daily and other publications. These features can be about you, an interesting topic you are an expert on, and any other interesting, unique story to promote your work! Contact her at jackie@legendrockmedia.com

I’ll be at the Jentel Residency or driving from May 14 to June 9 or so, so we’ll have to reschedule the May meeting for weeks before or after.

THOUGHTS:
Nearing the end? Lock in.

In track, our coaches said, “Finish strong.” That was good advice, apparently unheeded by runners and cyclists I see in countless videos raising their arms in celebration and relaxing, slowing down right before the finish line—costing them their first places.

Be like #1, not #8. You can slow down after the finish line.

This type of thing happens all the time across all types of goals, where seeing the finish line makes some people slow down, fade out, hit the wall, or stop.

For example:

There’s some family story that an extended relative—IDK, could be apocryphal—allegedly built an entire house from the ground up, but then stopped right before fixing up the front porch, leaving the first thing you see in the house unfinished for 40 years. He could probably finish that in one long weekend.

IMO, the time you’re at the highest risk of hurting yourself while going over a barbed wire fence is when your brain says “yeah, I’m basically over” and you move quickly and carelessly.

It’s ok not to do projects, but…

Most people with ideas for books never even start writing them, and that’s fine! And normal! (Assuming they don’t have a book deal.) I’m sure I have 100x more project ideas than I do completed projects. It’s unwise to get excited about, buy supplies for, start, and tell the world you’re going to do every project you think of. (Please ignore the folding kayak I just got on FB marketplace…)

There are times when it is best to quit something you’ve started, and even completed books are sometimes better left unpublished, such as when they contain libel.

But you don’t want a good, nearly-complete project to be thrown away just because our traitorous minds can lose steam when you’re almost there.

Some phenomena that kind of describe this, but aren’t exactly what I mean:

• The 99% Complete Syndrome

• The Last Mile Problem

• Completion Anxiety

• Extinction Bursts (kind of more related to extinguishing bad habits)

Random tips for overcoming the last mile:
(but consider a professional guide or therapist if it’s a big problem)

1. Recognize if it’s a problem for you and when it’s keeping you back.
   

2. Remember why you wanted to write a book. Are your reasons actualized once the words are in a document on your private computer, or in readers’ hands?
   

3. Celebrate milestones but don’t celebrate “almosts.”
   

4. Scared of letting go of the project that was your identity?
   
   Focus on what will come, rather than what you’re losing. You can celebrate, post selfies with it, sell books, maybe make more money, put “Author of XYZ” in your social media bio, finally have something to sell to viewers when your videos go viral, dedicate a shelf on your bookshelf to copies of your own book, and you can start on one of those 999 other projects you’re thinking about…
   

5. Scared your book sucks and you don’t want to release it?
   Some books do suck and should be scrapped or salvaged.
   
   But if you’re worried your book isn’t good enough, ask yourself:
   
   -Is this my perfectionism talking?
   -Would the world be better off with or without this?
   -For those trad publishing: Would my agent, publisher, editors, etc, have agreed to rep/work on/publish this book if it actually sucked? Once I submit it, they will most likely address and help me through any small or medium suckinesses.
   

6. Come to the next meeting and tell us your goal for the following month!

How are we feeling about sports metaphors? Hurdles are great for that. Did you know there is no penalty for knocking a hurdle over? You don’t ideally want to knock them over because that is likely to slow you down, but no one else cares, nor will they take anything from you, if you mess up and continue on anyway.

Admittedly, I have felt like I was 99% of the way to completing my book, Carcass, for a while, having not known all the things that come after the writing and reporting. (But luckily, I know no one is waiting for me to do one more little thing, as it’s currently with reviewers at the publisher.)

With such a project, I frequently worry that I’ll mess something up at the last minute and say “Geez, I put so much work into it, and then I messed up the ______?” Imagine no one buys it because I didn’t get good enough cover art! Imagine that of my 281 citations, some of them misinterpreted the study I cited! What if I get cancelled for posting a gif from a show people don’t like?

(Am I making you feel better?)

And then, is it ever really over? There is the potential for tours, podcast interviews, making video promotions…